Last minute Mille Lacs trip advice…

Hey everyone. This is the novice North Carolina ice fisherman again. Tomorrow is my birthday and then I get to fly up to Minneapolis Thursday for fishing all weekend. Any last minute advice??? We are staying with a resort Fri-Sun. I know during peak times we should have bites. Advice on during the day and patterns I should look for??? My plan is to just drill drill drill and try to find marks on the flasher. Going to start with jigging the silver/blue slender spoon and it sounds like the deadsticking hook with a shinner on it is going to catch the most fish.

I am a novice who has struggled with catching walleye in the past through the ice, so any advice is much appreciated! I will let you know how it goes and then go back to being a fan from afar!

Thanks!
Andy

Andy, edge of mud flats are producing. I would recommend at least 28 feet of water. My sister and her boyfriend caught some big ones throughout the night, not sure if you are staying on shore or on the water though. Good luck ! I will be up hoping that a BIG perch jumps up through a hole for me

Try to find your shiners before you get up to the lake. The only place I sawthem last weekend was Reeds and they were the small ones at $8 a scoop!

That is great advice, we will do that. Staying on the ice all night in the south east corner. I am going to grab a topo map of the lake right away.

Dumb question- Finding the mudd flats… Look at topo map and find just areas where the depths stay consistent?

Here is a very generic map

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That is great advice, we will do that. Staying on the ice all night in the south east corner. I am going to grab a topo map of the lake right away.

Dumb question- Finding the mudd flats… Look at topo map and find just areas where the depths stay consistent?

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What resort are you staying with?

Macs Twin Bay. So it looks like we will need to treck the ice roads to the North West to the flats. I will talk my buddies into it!

I was just up there last weekend and we fished out on a small hump that came up to 26 feet with 32-feet all around.

We couldn’t find fish mid day. The bite was good in the morning, then nothing all day, and then they started coming through around 4 in the afternoon throughout the night.

My best colors were perch colors, jigging raps and varmint spoons. We also used set lines and the one that got hit the most was set about 3 feet off the bottom with a plain hook and a chartreuse bead tipped with a shiner minnow.

I also jigged about 2 to 3 feet off the bottom to attract the fish in. Then you just have to see what works to trigger them. A couple came up and smacked, but the rest was an up and down game to see what they liked best.

There was 29-inches of ice where we set the house up, so be prepared with a good auger and extra gas if you want to punch a bunch of holes.

Good Luck

That sounds perfect. I have ordered some perch jigging raps. Not sure what a varmint spoons are, but I will look it up. Thanks!

Check your PMs

I checked that out. Thanks Chuck for reaching out to me.

larson3, do you fish the morning sun-up bite by Macs and then go to the mud after that? Do you do well in the afternoon up there? Sounds like a good plan.

Since your going out of Mac’s it would be a waste of gas and time to go out of Garrison. If you want the mudflats the closet resort that plows to them from where you’ll be is Hunters Point. It’s been a different bite during the day this year, don’t expect too much during the day hours unless you stumble upon a perch party under the ice! Good luck fishing!

Well, I thought I would let you all know how it went. Pretty disappointed in our results! Was up there from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. We were fishing in 26-30 feet of water in SE corner of lake out of Macs. I feel like we worked hard, hardest I have worked fishing. We drilled holes N,S,E and W of our house we stayed in and I want around with flasher trying to mark fish. Nothing during the day or when we were awake really.

BUT, here is when it got really frustrating and our inexperience caused epic failure! First night we had a fish on a rattle reel at around 2am and then the 2nd night had 2 on from 3-4am. Embarassing… we got all three of them hooked and pulled them up. As soon as we got them out of the hole (with all three), the line snapped on the rattle reels and we lost them. They got bigger each fish as we went. The house was prob a good foot above the ice and the last two walleye we had on the ice but not in the house. They were the biggest walleye I have had my hands on (not saying all that much). We were reaching for the gills to grab them on the last two and both times they slipped through our hands. I am guessing the last one was 6-7lbs, based on seeing it and picking it up for a split second.

So, it was a major disappointment, but we had a great time. I would have stayed up there for another full week if it wouldn’t have lead to a divorce in NC. I can’t wait to go up and try again. Crazy that we didn’t get anything on tip-ups or all the jigging we did. Just rattle reels late at night. I am sure it will be a good 3 years before I get to hit the ice again, but I can’t wait. I have a bunch of lures now that I can use then!

North Carolina Andy